Match It for Pratchett Campaign

I've just found out, via a friend, that Terry Pratchett fans worldwide are trying to raise enough money to match his donation of $1000000 to Alzheimer's Research.

If you're interested in making a donation, however small, click on the button below.

Please note, if you're outside the UK, you have to click the "Don't have a postal code" link and then you'll get an alternate box for putting in an address - and tick the non-UK radio button as well.



Please, if you can spare a couple of dollars or pounds or whatever your local currency is to make a donation in honour of a marvellously talented man, do so. Thank you.

Book Discussion Group: A Hat Full of Sky

The third Scholar's Blog Book Discussion has kicked off over on the Scholar's Blog Spoiler Zone - please do join in if you've read Terry Pratchett's A Hat Full of Sky.

Terry Pratchett news

From the Discworld Monthly email newsletter:

There is a new petition up on the UK Government's official Number 10 website to suggest that Terry is awarded a knighthood for his service to literature. You need to be a UK resident to be able to sign the petition and to have a valid email address as they will email you back to confirm your signature. On Thursday 29 March at 5.15 pm there was a grand total of 334 signatures, so a bit of work is needed.

If you're a UK resident or hold UK citizenship and work overseas (eg. in the Armed Forces), please pop over to the Petition website and vote.

If ever anyone deserved a Knighthood, it's "Lord Terry of Pratchett" (as he's affectionately known to me and my family), so spread the word far and wide, please !

Also in the newsletter are details of the 2008 UK Discworld Convention:

On behalf of the committee for the 2008 Discworld convention, I am very happy to announce that we have confirmed our venue and date for the 2008 convention. The 2008 Discworld Convention will take place from the 22nd to the 25th of August at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel.

Full details of membership and hotel costs will be announced when we launch the revamped website at Easter, but we are planning an introductory membership fee of 50 GBP (a 5 GBP increase on the 2006 starting price).

The previous three conventions were hosted at the Hinckley Island Hotel and many of the attendees at those events have very happy memories of those events and of the hotel. For many members (and committee staff), the Hinckley Hotel became almost synonymous with the Discworld convention. However, while the 2006 convention was a
great success, the hotel itself did not provide an entirely perfect experience, although the friendly and helpful attitude of many of the staff was, once again, an important contributor to an enjoyable weekend.

The committee thought very hard before choosing a new venue for the convention, but we are very excited by the possibilities of the new hotel. In particular, we are looking forward to making the most of a main event room that can seat the entire membership (so no more people missing out on the opening ceremony or Terry's interview).

Most of all, though, we are excited about seeing you there. We want to see our old friends and regular attendees, who have done so much to create the happy memories of previous Discworld events that motivate us to work towards the next convention. We want to see the new members and the surprises and new ideas they will bring. And
Terry will be turning up at some point, don't forget.

Much more information will be available when we re-launch the website. Until then, hello again and I'm looking forward to seeing you in Birmingham.

Can't wait!

Bruce Richardson, Chairman, Discworld Convention 2008

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Now that the venue details are finalised and the announcement has been made we would also like to welcome you to some new discussion groups for fans interested in the 2008 Convention:

You can subscribe to the new mail list here. There is also a LiveJournal community to join here

It sounds like fun !

Book Discussion Group - Reminder

Just a quick reminder that the Book Discussion Group will begin discussing Terry Pratchett's A Hat Full of Sky next week (Tuesday April 2) This is the second in the Tiffany Aching series, so you may want to read The Wee Free Men first.

And I wanted to confirm that, following last week's successful Book Giveaway, the book for December 07 (through January 08) will be Charles Butler's The Fetch of Mardy Watt (which is also available from Amazon.com). The full schedule for the year is available here.

Terry Pratchett news

Terry Pratchett fans may be interested in the following news (a quote from Terry himself) received via the Discworld Monthly Newsletter:

"The news here is that Making Money has gone off to the publisher; currently the various works in progress are The Folklore of Discworld, which I am working on with Jacqueline Simpson (co-author of The Lore of the Land, among many other books on folklore). Lu Tse's Yearbook of Enlightenment (the next Discworld diary) and Nation, a young adult book for next year, which is not Discworld, and not what people are usually thinking about when they use the term fantasy. I am about 10,000 words into it already and actually wrote about 5,000 words of it when I was at the Australian convention a few weeks ago. Well, if the jetlag means you are wide awake at three o'clock in the morning, why waste the time!"

Making Money is another story about Moist Von Lipwig, the protagonist of Going Postal, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I look forward to this novel. And The Folklore of Discworld sounds fascinating !

Also mentioned in the DWM newsletter, was "The Art of Josh Kirby", an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool which will run from 16 June to 30 September 2007.

It's the first retrospective exhibition of science fiction artist Josh Kirby, who was born in Liverpool in 1928 and trained at Liverpool School of Art. He began his career producing film posters, moving to book and cover art for magazines. Some of his more famous work includes the first cover of Ian Fleming's Moonraker and the poster for Monty Python's Life of Brian; he is probably best known for his cover illustrations of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. The exhibition will comprise around 150 works spanning the whole of his career, such as artwork for book covers and magazines, personal studies, large-scale oils, film posters, and preparatory sketches. Selections from the Discworld series will be included, but the exhibition will also reach far beyond that to show visitors the full range of his output. It will be packed with visions of weird worlds, fantastic and magical creatures, monsters, maidens and much more. The incredible detail, imaginiation and skill behind Josh's art will be fully revealed.

The Truth - Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett's The Truth is another stand-alone novel, this time set in the bustling city of Ankh-Morpork (which bears no small resemblance to New York), which is home to the city ruler, Lord Vetinari the Patrician, the Unseen University for Wizards, and Guilds for everything from Assassins to Thieves, including Clowns but not mimes. Ankh-Morpork has weathered several influxes of "modern" technology in its time - the demon-inspired invention of movies (in Moving Pictures, the brief fad for "Music with Rocks In" (aka Rock and Roll, in Soul Music) - and now it has acquired a free press (The Ankh-Morpork Times) with dedicated newshounds, a staff of dwarf printers, and some readers who just want to see their amusing vegetables in the "On a Lighter Note" section. There are attempts afoot by the old aristocracy to unseat the Patrician, which The Times finds itself tangled up in, much to the annoyance of Commander Vimes of the City Watch, who's in an even worse temper than usual. William de Worde, the accidental editor and chief reporter of The Times is an attractive Pratchettesque hero, and the two villains of the story are probably the nastiest doomed hitmen outside of a Tarantino movie.

Small Gods - Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett's Small Gods is a good place to start reading the Discworld books - it's a stand-alone (ie. not part of a several-books-long character arc) and it's not too outrageously funny (which some people might find off putting). It's also profound, very thought-provoking and still very relevant (in some ways it's more relevant), despite being written nearly 14 years ago.

The setting is the country of Omnia, a land on the Klatchian coast of the Discworld, that is ruled by the priesthood of the Church of Om. It's a harsh, arid desert country where the Quisition works tirelessly (and bloodily) to remove the sin from individuals deemed to be guilty - and almost no one is safe from the Quisition, since the priests regard the very existence of suspicion as proof of guilt. You might think that the Great God Om would bask in the power and glory of his church, but ritual has replaced substance in Omnia, and whilst the people worship Om, they don't really believe in him anymore. As a consequence, when Om manifested himself three years ago, he found himself stuck in the body of a one-eyed tortoise (rather than, say, a mighty bull, as he was planning) and he has only just found someone with the true flame of faith burning inside him. Unfortunately for Om, that one believer is Brutha, a novitiate in the Church whom, all would agree, is just a little bit slow on the uptake, and is probably the last person Om would have chosen to become his new Prophet. Brutha does have one thing going for him - he has a perfect memory, but unfortunately, because he remembers literally everything, he has little spare brain capacity for thought. Although, in a way, this is not hugely inconvenient since the Church strongly discourages individuals who think for themselves as that kind of thing just leads to trouble.

Unsurprisingly Brutha has a hard time accepting that a tortoise is the Great God Om, and since Om doesn't have the power to do anything but mouth ineffectual curses at the things that bother him, Om cannot easily convince Brutha of his identity. Brutha becomes increasingly disturbed to learn that Om never really gave his followers any instruction whatsoever - all of the holy books that he knows by heart were apparently made up by the prophets. Then Brutha finds himself accompanying Deacon Vorbis, the head of the Quisition, to the land of Ephebe, where you can't throw a brick without hitting a philosopher, all of whom argue violently among themselves, and frequently live in barrels. One such philosopher is Didactylos, whose philosophy is summed up as "It's a funny old world". He suddenly finds himself part of an underground movement that insists, despite the tenets of the Omnian Church, that "the Turtle moves"; that turtle being Great A'Tuin, the space-faring turtle on whose back the Discworld is carried by four elephants. As so often happens, religious dispute breeds war, and the future of Omnia - not to mention the future of the Great God Om - lies in the hands of Brutha and how he deals with others, particularly Deacon Vorbis.

Hogfather TV movie

I finally sat down and watched the four hour Sky One TV movie of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather this afternoon, and it was better than I'd heard, thankfully. I really liked Michelle Dockery as Susan, Death's granddaughter - apparently she starred in the stage version of His Dark Materials. Marc Warren as Teatime the Assassin was frankly creepy (and a much better role than Elton in Doctor Who's "Love and Monsters" from season 2 - the only other role I've seen him in !) I didn't think Joss Ackland was nearly loud and over-confident enough as Ridcully, but Ian Richardson as the voice of Death was brilliant. No film adaptation of a book I've thoroughly enjoyed is ever going to be completely satisfying, since I'm so book-oriented, but I thought this did a good job.

(By the way, does anyone else find themselves reminded of a certain Lord of the Rings movie scene when looking at this image from the film ?)

Television treats for British fantasy fans

British fans of Philip Pullman and Terry Pratchett are hoping for Christmas treats. The BBC are screening an adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel The Ruby in the Smoke (the first book in the Sally Lockhart quartet) on December 27th at 8.30 pm. The Victorian adventure stars the actress who recently retired as Doctor Who's assistant, Billie Piper, alongside Oscar-nominated Julie Walters. Good news for American fans - according to the PBS site, it'll be airing in early February in the US (it's about half way down the page on the left hand side !) on Masterpiece Theatre.

And Terry Pratchett fans are hoping that Sky One's adaptation of Pratchett's Discworld novel, Hogfather, lives up to its potential. Fans of the book and the TV movie, may be interested in the Hogfather: The Illustrated Screenplay or the Hogfather Calendar, both of which I've seen and can recommend as being interesting (and in the case of the calendar, full of some brilliant photos !). Hogfather is airing on Sky One on December 17 and 18, and again on December 25 and 26, in two 2-hour slots.

An Introduction to Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett is the astonishingly popular author-creator of the Discworld (TM) series; reportedly 1% of every book sold in the UK is written by Pratchett — that's all books, not just fantasy ones. He has also written some non-Discworld books as well, of which more later. First a brief explanation of Discworld for those who are unfamiliar with it. As suggested by its name, this is a flat world carried on the back of four large elephants, which are themselves standing upon the back of the giant, space-faring world turtle, Great A'Tuin, who endlessly swims through space.

For readers new to Discworld, a good starting place is Pratchett's marvellous "Discworld for children" series featuring the apprentice witch, Tiffany Aching: The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, and Wintersmith. Tiffany is the kind of child who, reading in her book of stories that Jenny Greenteeth has eyes the size of soup plates, measures a soup plate to check the size; she knows the meanings of lots of words (no one has ever told her that you're not meant to read the dictionary like a novel); she's the kind of child who, hearing stories about the "wicked old witch", wonders "Where’s the evidence?" In The Wee Free Men Tiffany encounters Jenny Greenteeth and this leads her to taking on the Queen of the Faeries herself (and this being Terry Pratchett, we’re not talking Tinkerbell fairies !); she also finds herself temporarily the Kelda (leader) of the Wee Free Men (aka the Nac Mac Feegle), 4 inch high blue men with an over-aggressive attitude (they love fighting, stealing and drinking, preferably all at once !), but astonishing loyalty. In the sequel, A Hat Full of Sky, Tiffany goes to stay with Miss Level to learn to be a witch. Unfortunately, just before she leaves the Chalk (where she lives), she attracts the attention of a "hiver" a bodiless creature that likes to inhabit minds until the minds’ owners go mad and die. The manner in which Tiffany chooses to deal with this frightening and threatening creature is remarkably mature and unselfish, and the book itself is a compelling look at the power of storytelling (something which Pratchett discusses again and again in his books). In Wintersmith, Tiffany encounters the wintersmith, who has mistaken her for his counterpart, Lady Summer, after Tiffany listens to her feet and leaps into the Dark Morris, the dance that's done every year to greet the winter. The wintersmith is intrigued by Tiffany and sets about wooing her with, amongst other things, Tiffany-shaped snowflakes and Tiffany-shaped icebergs. When she tells him that she isn't interest in him, he decides to try to become a man. The consequences of Tiffany's impulsiveness in leaping into the dance are far-reaching and she must learn how to deal with the wintersmith, although she does not do so alone; she is aided by the senior witches Granny Weatherwax (whom Tiffany spent quite some time with in A Hat Full of Sky) and Nanny Ogg (whom she only briefly met at the end of The Wee Free Men).

Other books by Terry Pratchett that are written for children but which serve as a good introduction to his books for readers of all ages is The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, a Discworld parody of the tale of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"; and non-Discworld books that include the Bromeliad trilogy (Truckers, Diggers and Wings) about a race of Nomes (beings akin to Lilliputians, but with far more advanced technology), and the YA Johnny Maxwell trilogy (Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb), featuring the sensitive and thoughtful teenager Johnny Maxwell, and his various misfit friends.

If you enjoy the stories above, you may like to try some of the "Discworld for Adults of All Ages" book, with which Pratchett made his name as a comedy fantasist. The Discworld books consist of a handful of stand-alone novels, and several character series. My personal favourites are those featuring the Witches (the aforementioned Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, and various colleagues) and the Ankh-Morpork City Watch (Commander Samuel Vimes and his various officers).

Granny Weatherwax is a tough-as-nails witch who has an advanced knowledge of psychology (known as "headology" on the Discworld), her friend Nanny Ogg loves a drink, a smoke and the company of men; she has a number of sons, daughters-in-law (whose names she can never remember), and grand-children, plus an evil-tempered, one-eyed, smelly cat named Greebo. The two are aided, or more often hindered, by various younger witches: Magrat is a soppy, New Age-ish witch, who suffers much from her misspelled name (her mother didn't know how to spell Margaret), yet nevertheless overcomes her various "handicaps" after a series of adventures in Wyrd Sisters (a humorous parody of Macbeth), Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies and Carpe Jugulum (which, given the title, unsurprisingly features vampires). A new younger "third witch", Agnes, is introduced into the series to take Magrat's place (after she moves onto other things), appearing first in Carpe Jugulum and then in Maskerade (the Discworld version of The Phantom of the Opera).

The City Watch series begins with Guards! Guards! (in which the twin city of Ankh-Morpork (a Discworld version of New York) is invaded by a dragon), Men At Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, Nightwatch and Thud. The City Watch is initially portrayed as old, incompetent and/or a huge joke to the rest of the city, but the City Watch is revitalised in Guards! Guards! by the arrival of Carrot, a 6+ foot young man who has been raised by dwarves in the distant mountain mines, and who believes great things of the Watch. which they somehow find themselves striving to live up to.

Another of my favourite Discworld characters is Death, the 7 foot tall animated skeleton, who rides a pure white stallion named Binky (!) and TALKS IN CAPITALS LIKE THIS. The Death series consists of Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music (which sees the introduction of Rock and Roll to the Discworld), Hogfather (in which Death takes over from the Discworld equivalent of Santa Clause), and Thief Of Time.

The final character series features the wizards of Unseen University. This series seems to have been merged with the Science of Discworld Series, as the wizards have featured in all three SoD books so far. The series consists of The Colour of Magic (the very first Discworld book), The Light Fantastic (which is a fairly direct sequel to The Colour of Magic), Sourcery (that's not a typo !), Eric, Interesting Times, The Last Continent, and the three Science of Discworld books: The Science of Discworld, The Science of Discworld II: The Globe and Darwin's Watch: Science of Discworld III.

Stand-alone Discworld novels include Moving Pictures (a satire on Hollywood), Small Gods (probably Pratchett's best ever novel - don't let the title put you off !), The Truth (the Discworld invents newspapers and tabloid journalism), Monstrous Regiment, and Going Postal (in which the Ankh-Morpork postal service is revived).

The Wee Free Men; A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett

Tiffany Aching is spotted as a potential witch at the age of 9, by Miss Tick, a Witch-Finder (that is, a witch who finds girls with Witch potential), who sees to it that Tiffany begins her magical education, not at a Hogwarts-style school, but by becoming an apprentice to different individual witches for a period of time. She is the kind of child who, after reading in her book of stories that Jenny Greenteeth has eyes the size of soup plates, measures a soup plate to check the size; she knows the meanings of lots of words since no one has ever told her that you’re not meant to read the dictionary like a novel. She’s also the kind of child who, hearing stories about the "wicked old witch", wonders "Where’s the evidence?"

In The Wee Free Men Tiffany encounters the fairy tale monster, Jenny Greenteeth, whom she wallops with a cast-iron frying pan, and sends on her way, because a monster has no business being in her river. She then meets Miss Tick, who tells Tiffany that "an incursion of major proportions" is about to take place; in other words the Queen of the Faerie is about to invade Tiffany's world. This being Terry Pratchett, we’re not talking about Tinkerbell fairies, so Miss Tick sets off to fetch help as she does not believe that either of them are capable of dealing with the Queen. Unfortunately, Tiffany's three year old brother, Wentworth, is kidnapped by the Queen, who takes him back to Fairyland. Fortunately, Tiffany finds herself some indomitable allies when she is temporarily made the Kelda (leader) of the Wee Free Men (aka the Nac Mac Feegle), a clan of 4 inch high blue men with an over-aggressive attitude (they love fighting, stealing and drinking, preferably all at once), but astonishing loyalty. They assist Tiffany in entering Fairyland and in her encounter with the Queen.

In the sequel, A Hat Full of Sky, Tiffany goes off into the mountains to stay with Miss Level to be her apprentice so she can learn to be a witch. Unfortunately, just before she leaves the Chalk (where she lives), she attracts the attention of a "hiver", a bodiless creature that likes to inhabit minds until the owners of those minds go mad and die. Despite the fact that she's no longer their Kelda, several of the Nac Mac Feegle go after Tiffany, disguising themselves as a human by dressing up in stolen clothes (and a stolen beard) so that they can get the stagecoach up into the mountains. However, the hiver has already possessed Tiffany's mind and they find themselves forced to go after Tiffany (being otherworldly creatures, they're able to enter Tiffany's mind via her dreams). Tiffany manages to free her mind from the hiver, but it hangs around, wanting her power for itself. I'm not going to tell just how Tiffany chooses to deal with this frightening and threatening creature, except to say that she does so in a remarkably mature and unselfish manner. A Hat Full of Sky is a compelling look at the power of storytelling, a topic to which Pratchett returns again and again in his books.

Aardman Animation Magic; Terry Pratchett

Aardman Animation studios has released two images from its first full-length computer-generated film, Flushed Away. The film is about an upper-crust rat's adventures in an underground rodent metropolis and is being produced at the Dreamworks studios in California. The animal characters were moulded in Plasticine, then scanned in 3-D and recreated as computerised images. Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis and Sir Ian McKellen amongst others are supplying voices for the movie which will be released in December. An Aardman spokesman said it had no plans to drop the plasticine animation used in the Wallace and Gromit films. However, he said computer animation was "a natural progression for the studio". "Another reason we are making this film in CG is water," he continued. "The sewers of London are full of water, which is almost impossible using traditional 3-D animation."
 
The pictures from the film are online at the BBC website. This film's on my "to see" film list for this year - it sounds like it'll be the usual Aardman fun...

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Terry Pratchett fans will be interested in the following news:

Wintersmith contracted to appear by March 2006 (don't take any notice of the Amazon.co.uk publication date of October - Terry's last two children's books, published in this series appeared in March). Tiffany Aching is a trainee witch - now working for the seriously scary Miss Treason. But when Tiffany witnesses the Dark Dance - the crossover from summer to winter - she does what none has ever done before and leaps into the dance, into the oldest story there ever is, and draws the attention of the wintersmith himself... As Tiffany-shaped snowflakes hammer down on the land, can Tiffany deal with the consequences of her actions? Even with the help of Granny Weatherwax and the Nac Mac Feegle - the fightin', thievin' pictsies who are prepared to lay down their lives for their 'big wee hag'... (There could be a fourth book in the Tiffany Aching series too - a little more information is available at The L-Space Web.)

2007 Discworld Diary: The Ankh-Morpork Post Office Handbook due out on 17 August 2006. This is the latest in a long line of Diaries relating to Discworld characters/places. it will contain the rules and regulations of the Post Office as well as a history of the service. Co-written by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs, and illustrated by Paul Kidby.

The Unseen University Cut Out Book due out on 1 October 2006. This is a cut-out book for adults, which in an extraordinary feat of paper engineering reveals a detailed 3-D model of the Unseen University - the most ancient and complex building on Discworld. Colourful and intricate, this paper sculpture will provide hours of fun for the true "Discworld" fan (or at least those who are not mechanical idiots, like me !)

Pratchett on film, Tolkien books

Terry Pratchett's novel Hogfather is being made into a 2-part, 4-hour film which will be shown on Sky One, the British cable channel at Christmas. This will be the first time that any of Pratchett's hugely successful Discworld books (which have sold more than 45 million copies and made the author a triple millionaire (at the last count), have been brought to life on the screen by real actors. David Jason will lead the cast as Albert, Death's assistant, a grumpy 65-year-old wizard.

When he was asked why it had taken so long for one of his novels to be filmed, Pratchett admitted:

"I'm not a very easy person to negotiate with. The books make me a lot of money and I have very much enjoyed writing them. You have to give up a lot of control for the movies and I can't quite bring myself to do it. TV is more fun than movies, because you can get involved more, because these people are close at hand."

Ian Richardson, who starred in the Andrew Davies TV adaptation of Michael Dobbs's book House of Cards, will provide the voice of Death, a regular character in Pratchett's books, although an unnamed 6ft 7in Dutchman will play Death in person.

Pratchett has been closely involved with the feature, which is being shot in Romania because of the need for vast studio space and ready access to mountain scenery. Johnny and the Bomb, a non-Discworld children's novel by Pratchett, has just been shown on BBC1; it starred Zoe Wanamaker. It followed an earlier live action adaption of Johnny and the Dead, the prequel to Johnny and the Bomb and second in the Johnny Maxwell trilogy. Previously animated versions of the Discworld novels Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters were made for Channel 4.

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The following fairly new books have caught my eye:

Reading "The Lord of the Rings": New Writings on Tolkien's Trilogy edited by Robert Eaglestone (Continuum, 2005) is a serious, scholarly book which includes an introduction by Michael D C Drout (editor of the forthcoming The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment to which I have contributed); an essay called "Modernity" by Michael Moses; an essay called "Anglo-Saxon Women, Tolkien's Women" by Jennifer Neville and an essay called "After Tolkien" by Roz Kaveney (who is best known for her work on Buffy and Angel).

The Keys of Middle-Earth: Discovering Medieval Literature Through the Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien by Stuart Lee and Elizabeth Solopova (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). Both the authors teach at Oxford University; Stuart also instigated the Virtual Seminars on World War One Poetry and its discussion forum, whilst Elizabeth works in the Department of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. The book takes incidents from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and matches them to incidents in Medieval Literature.

Finally, The Return of the Hero: Rowling, Tolkien and Pullman by Christopher Wrigley (Book Guild Ltd, 2005). This books has one chapter on each of the three authors. I've just added all three books to my library list (none are in stock so I shall have to request that they be ordered before i can read them.)

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Just spotted this on Bookmoot: The Potter Index references every single word or phrase in the Harry Potter books by book and page number, although it only refers to the US editions at present. Apparently it will also reference the UK editions by the summer.